


Dancing

by coffeecakelatte



Category: Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (Band)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-19
Updated: 2019-04-19
Packaged: 2020-01-16 06:57:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 716
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18516259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coffeecakelatte/pseuds/coffeecakelatte
Summary: Paul watches Andy dance for the first time.





	Dancing

**Author's Note:**

> Please note that this is a work of fiction.

One day, Andy went and put on our first record. We were very proud of it, we were one step closer to being like our idols, Kraftwerk, only with two men and a Teac. Maybe this whole music lark could work. Maybe I wouldn’t have to go back to the electronics firm. I felt this sense of excitement listening to it. That was us on the record. For a couple of blokes who didn’t even know how to read music, it sounded pretty darned good.

I was so excited that I didn’t even think about how Andy felt about it. I looked over and caught his eye, and his expression stopped me dead in my tracks. Far from the excitement I expected to see reflected back at me, he looked cross. His eyebrows were furrowing together and his lips were curling into a distinct frown.

“No,” he said, getting up and turning it off. “Something’s missing.”

“Sounds pretty good to me,” I blurted out.

“It’s not the sound, it’s…” He gestured to the two of us. “Won’t it be terribly boring, watching us up there? You plink-plonking away at the synth and me playing bass? And it’s not like Winston’s giving us any visual appeal.”

“Well, we could...dress differently? I dunno.” _Stop talking_ , I told myself. Andy clearly had something in mind and he didn’t need me mucking things up.

Thankfully, he ignored my comment. Instead he suggested something that floored me. “What if I was dancing?”

I’d never seen Andy dance. I didn’t know if he had the same rotten sense of rhythm as me or what. This could be a disaster. And even if it wasn’t--how would he dance and play bass at the same time?

“Right. Turn it to ‘Electricity.’”

I got up and did what I was told, even though he was two inches away from the tape deck. Then, anticipating the worst, I sat down and placed my hands in my lap.

That was a good choice.

Andy began a sort of _danse macabre_ , which involved quite a lot of flailing, jumping, and graceful arm movements. He truly embodied the expression _dance like no one’s watching_ , although in this case he most certainly had a captive audience. But then I wasn’t exactly captive--in that moment, there was nowhere else I would rather be. 

It was fascinating to watch. I couldn’t tear my eyes away, I wanted to know exactly where he was going to place his arm next. I loved seeing how he would visually cut the air and create rhythmical, moving art out of the space. Luckily, he had enough space to move--we were in a large enough room that it permitted him to spread his wings, as it were. I tracked his every movement like a spy. In fact, this was starting to feel very voyeuristic, like...I wasn’t meant to be seeing it. Something dropped into the pit of my stomach, and it kept weighing, tugging down, until I found myself hunched over, convinced I was doing something wrong. But I loved it so much that I couldn’t possibly stop now.

I was watching his body closely, and it made me notice things about him that I didn’t typically notice. His limbs were, indeed, very long, and his hands looked rough. He stopped and rolled up his sleeves at one point, and that’s when I saw the two twin veins running down his forearms. Then he unbuttoned his shirt and I saw how red he’d become, his sweat rolling down his collarbone and the peeks of skin between the buttons. His face was fully flushed, his curls getting in his eyes, which were closed anyway so it hardly mattered. He bit down on his lip and whirled and snapped all the way to the end of the song, which came far too soon. And yet not soon enough.

“Well?” he asked.

I didn’t answer. The figure before me was solid, straight, and real, and it was unmistakably Andy. I had been watching him far too closely. I felt as though I’d invaded his privacy. And more than that, I felt...thrilled. In a way I wasn’t supposed to be. 

“Paul? Are you OK?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah.”

He smirked. “You’re weird.”

_You’re right. I am._


End file.
